Qatar finances Hezbollah terrorism, declares ‘Jews are enemies’ - report
Doha sought to silence whistleblower with 750,000 euros
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALIran's proxies, including Hezbollah, are empowered throughout the Middle East (photo credit: REUTERS)
A German private security contractor, who has worked for the federal republic’s intelligence and security services, leveled bombshell allegations against Qatar’s regime, stating Doha finances the US and EU-designated terrorist movement Hezbollah and has declared Jews to be the enemies of the tiny Gulf state.The German weekly news outlet Die Zeit first reported on Friday about the security contractor Jason G. who obtained explosive details about Qatari terror finance.“In Doha, G. came across some unsavory information. There was an alleged arms deal with war munitions from Eastern Europe that was supposed to be handled by a company in Qatar. And there were alleged money flows from several rich Qataris and exiled Lebanese people from Doha to Hezbollah – the organization that is part of the government in Lebanon but is internationally outlawed as a terrorist organization and has been completely banned in Germany since April. The donations are said to have been processed with the knowledge of influential government officials through a charity organization in Doha,” wrote the veteran Die Zeit journalists Yassin Musharbash and Holger Stark.The paper added that “a thick dossier with compromising material emerged, which Zeit was able to see in parts and which is somewhat explosive: Israel and the USA have long been trying to dry out [the finances of] Hezbollah. Concrete evidence that money is flowing from the Gulf to terrorist groups would increase pressure on Qatar and may lead to sanctions.”G. met with Michael Inacker, who works for the German public relations company WMP, and is well connected to a top Qatari diplomat who was not named in the article. WMP also did work for Qatar's regime.Die Zeit reported that G. presented the incriminating material from Doha to both a well-connected Berlin lawyer and Inacker. The paper said the question was raised about how much cash could be earned with the dossier.“The estimates ranged up to ten million euros,” wrote Die Zeit.This is “possibly the [target] amount that the informant himself or his lawyer hoped for from a sale,” Inacker told Die Zeit, adding that he found the material “potentially important for combating the financing of Islamist terrorism.”It is unclear how Inacker’s role went from shielding a document about Qatar’s alleged role in funding Hezbollah from public scrutiny to combating terror finance. Inacker, however, claimed Israel’s existence plays an important role in his life.The paper reported that “according to Jason G., because of Inacker’s mediation, there were half a dozen meetings between G. and the Qatari diplomat.”
Die Zeit further wrote that “according to G., ugly comments about Israel had also been made at one of the meetings, the [Qatari] diplomat said that they had learned from the ground up that the Jews were their enemies.” The Qatari top diplomat did not respond to a Die Zeit press query about his alleged anti-Jewish comment. Qatar’s state-controlled Al Jazeera frequently publishes and broadcasts antisemitic reports, according to experts in the field of antisemitism.G. said he received €10,000 a number of times from Qatar’s diplomat, including an additional €100,000 over a period of months.The paper reported that Qatar’s regime offered G. €750,000 in exchange for remaining silent about his knowledge of Qatar’s financing of Hezbollah.After the negotiations ostensibly broke down, G. offered his services via his attorney in connection with the dossier to Israel’s Embassy in Berlin, wrote Die Zeit.Die Zeit wrote that “neither the government of the Emirate nor the Qatari ambassador in Berlin want to comment on the details, a government spokesman from Doha merely says that Qatar ‘plays a central role in international efforts to combat terrorism and extremism in the Middle East.’ The country has ‘strict laws to prevent private terrorism from being financed,’ and anyone caught doing so will be punished with all the harshness of the law.”Yet, Qatar has long been accused of financing terrorism in the Middle East. The monarchy state provides organizational space to the US and EU-designated terrorist movement Hamas, as well as for the Taliban. Qatar has also built a strong alliance with the Islamic Republic of Iran – the worst state-sponsor of global terrorism, according to both the Obama and Trump administrations.In 2014, German Development Minister Gerd Mueller accused Qatar of financing Islamic State terrorists. “This kind of conflict, this kind of a crisis always has a history... The ISIS troops, the weapons – these are lost sons, with some of them from Iraq,” Mueller told German public broadcaster ZDF.“You have to ask who is arming, who is financing ISIS troops. The keyword there is Qatar – and how do we deal with these people and states politically?” said Mueller.Die Zeit used a different name for the security contractor in its article. Qatar has employed surveillance operations in the US and other countries to spy on its alleged opponents – hence the apparent need to use the alias Jason G.In a related Hezbollah terror finance development, The Jerusalem Post first reported on Friday that the Hezbollah-controlled community center in the northern German city of Bremen funnels money to the Lebanese-based terrorist movement Hezbollah.Bremen’s domestic intelligence service wrote in its Thursday report that the Al-Mustafa community center “is involved in the financial support” of the Shi’ite terrorist organization Hezbollah. Al-Mustafa organized a talk with a radical Germany-based Islamist who agitates against Israel’s existence.It is unclear if Bremen or the German government will shut down the Al-Mustafa center for terror finance. After the German interior ministry outlawed all Hezbollah activities in April, 2020, the authorities raided the Al-Mustafa center.The Post uncovered the Shi’ite organization’s bank account – the Bremen-based Sparkasse.The Sparkasse bank did not immediately respond to the Post press queries on Friday.
